Does BRICS have a clear purpose?

The 18th BRICS summit takes place in India this weekend. Unlike last year, the leaders of China and Russia are coming. But does the expanded group have a clear common mission and purpose?

In preparation for hosting the 18th BRICS summit in Delhi this weekend, India came up with a slogan which tried to keep the group's brand intact without alienating its many new members.

"Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability" matches the acronym for the body's five original members — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — whilst also denoting goals which the new members — Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates — can get behind.

"It's an elegant way to reinterpret BRICS so that the acronym represents a joint mission rather than country names," Mihaela Papa, director of the BRICS Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told DW.

For Sushant Singh, lecturer in South Asian Studies at Yale University, the vague slogan reflects India's desire as hosts to keep BRICS as low-key and neutral as possible.

"India doesn't want to offend Russia or China, but the fact is that Indians are looking more towards the United States these days. The desire to build up BRICS is not there."

India takes host role

Yet host India's status as a rising global geopolitical power has added clout to this year's gathering when compared with last year's summit in Brazil.

At the Rio de Janeiro gathering, six of the bloc's 11 heads of state skipped the event, including major players like Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin is expected to attend, while Xi Jinping is widely expected but not yet formally confirmed by Beijing. 

"The participation of China's top leadership is crucial," says Papa.

She also thinks it would be a significant sign of the BRICS' strength as a "stabilizing force" if the leaders of regional rivals Iran and the UAE were shown to be able to work together.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian will attend but UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan is expected to send representatives. Saudi Arabia, another Iranian foe, is also expected to. The country's BRICS status remains somewhat ambiguous, although current official BRICS materials generally list it as a member.

For India, the summit is as significant for the bilateral meetings it brings as much as for the BRICS gathering itself. Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are due to meet on Friday while the summit will also present an opportunity for Xi and Modi to speak face-to-face amid continued strain in the China-India relationship.

However, that does not mean much of substance will emerge from the weekend.

"In terms of concrete outcomes and what is achievable, I think it's going to be very, very limited," says Singh.

Modi has spoken of BRICS as an important forum for the 'Global South' to present a common front on various issues. He has also spoken about "a people-centric approach" and the spirit of "humanity first".

However, Singh says BRICS is simply not a priority for India and that in general, Delhi has not appreciated what many have interpreted as the "anti-western" turn the group has taken in recent times.

"With India as chair, India won't be comfortable with any kind of anti-western line," he says, pointing to the focus it places on defense ties with the US and trade ties with the west as a whole.

 "India's idea of BRICS is more to look at improving trade ties, etc. In other words, can we do things which are beneficial to us without in any way being confrontational or critical of the West?"

Yet ironically, India's non-aligned status means it may actually be able to keep the bloc aligned.

"India adds clout because it has significant geopolitical weight and relationships across competing camps, making it an important bridge-builder," says Papa. "Its approach is likely to keep BRICS focused on practical cooperation and global governance reform rather than overt bloc politics."

What is BRICS for anyway?

BRICS is soon approaching its 18th birthday, so in a sense it should be coming of age. Yet the bloc has struggled for coherence in recent years amid doubt over its purpose.

The scale of what it could represent is not in doubt. It boasts nearly half the world's population among its members and around 40% of its GDP.

Last year, its joint declaration called for reforms of global governance, specifying representation on multilateral bodies such as the IMF and the World Bank. It also condemned tariffs and decried what it called the "polarization" of the international order.

"Ideologically, BRICS remains where it was during the last summit in Brazil, focused on practical, functional cooperation while seeking to avoid geopolitical tensions," says Papa.

She says that the expansion of the group from five to 11 members — if we include Saudi Arabia — has made it harder to reach consensus on various issues.

There are also now more autocracies among its members than democracies, while many members have tense bilateral relations. "These internal contradictions will always be hard to reconcile," says Singh.

What might happen this year

Nonetheless, Papa says she expects progress this year in three areas: trade, monetary cooperation, and agriculture. Discussions are likely to focus on improving trade between the members, alternative financial architecture for exchanging currencies and on issues around food security.

While talk of reforming global governance will still be central, she thinks BRICS' best hope to focus on the institutions which it agrees most on. For example, India is reluctant to press for UN reform but is keen for a co-ordinated approach from BRICS to trade and the WTO.

"India's WTO ambitions are shared by more members," she says, which makes movement in that area "more likely."

Yet many still share Singh's view that the group will "continue to underwhelm."

He says issues ranging from China's growing global dominance to the Trump administration's stance on tariffs have made the bloc's limited goals even harder to achieve.

"With the kind of world that we are in and the lack of coherence and internal contradictions that BRICS has, it's very unlikely that it will achieve anything major," he says.